Friday the 13th Movies: Ranked Worst to Best

10. Friday The 13th: A New Beginning (1985)

Paramount Pictures

The fifth movie in the franchise, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning has got to be one of the worst. To begin with, Jason isn't the killer in this film. Instead, a long list of suspects is put forth.

Tommy Jarvis, who traumatically killed Jason in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, is the primary suspect. Driven a little crazy by his brutal machete-wielding chop-fest on Jason's head, a now fully-grown Tommy is living in a halfway house for young "nuts". When Joey, another of the house's residents, is axed to death by a particularly nasty nut, the local paramedics arrive to a bloody awful scene. After the pieces of Joey's body are carted away, a hockey-masked slayer begins a rampage through the inhabitants of the woods that serve as the location of the halfway house.

Needless to say, we are treated to a long list of various death scenes before finally learning who is impersonating Jason. Apart from Jason not being the killer, there are plenty of reasons to hate this episode in the F13 franchise. First, the acting isn't very good. It's not horrible, but it's not good. Second, the script is very weak with plenty of plot points being stretched so thin as to almost be invisible. Third, there are way too many unnecessary scenes that were obviously thrown in as filler. Who really needs to see a guy in an outhouse suffering from burrito bowel syndrome while his girlfriend stands outside singing to him? And finally, we're forced to remember the end of the previous movie where Corey Feldman shaved his head in a splotchy imitation of young Jason.

At the end of the movie, Jason is revealed to be one of the paramedics, a man named Roy. As it turns out, Roy is Joey's father and donned the guise of Jason to cover up his revenge-killings of everyone at the halfway house. Why didn't he just kill the guy who murdered his son? I can't really answer that question.

I really dislike this film as part of the F13 franchise. It does nothing to advance the overall storyline nor does it supply us with a legitimate sub-plot for the overall storyline. The only thing we get is the second appearance of three-time movie hero Tommy Jarvis. And Tommy's not a very likeable character anyway.

Contributor

Tim is a varied character. He's lived on three continents. He hates ice cream. He has been a highly-paid computer programmer. He invents collectible card games. He is a coffee shop owner. He has had fantasy stories published in magazines. Eventually he wishes to retire from life and become a professional 10-pin bowler who writes articles while living in his RV and traveling from bowling tournament to bowling tournament with his faithful wife in tow. And of course, Tim is a major horror and science fiction fan.